Coming Soon

I am trying to get day 4 posted. It takes a while to go through the pics, choose which ones I am going to post, edit, crop, and compress, and then upload them. Plus I have been spending way too much time with my wireless guitar hero guitar.

The People have spoken.

At least that is what I told Rick when we were discussing the price of the Sea World photos. In true Rick fashion, with his Southern Manness and his MANwiches, he said all in one breath, "The people can't tell us what to do, What did they say?" And then we discussed the benefits of asking complete strangers for advice. (I did post the question in more than one place.) So we both agreed with 'The People', and $68.39 later, in 4 to 6 weeks we will be receiving 10 pictures on a CD. Plus one print. They asked me what print I wanted, and because I couldn't see the thumbnails very well, I asked them to choose the one that had the boy in the grey hoodie looking the happiest.

Also, you're not fooling me honey. You might drink the beer, but I know you prefer the girly drinks when I break out the blender.

One-Liners

Things I have heard in my house lately:

Part of Josh's speech deficit is that all sounds with a G, K, or hard C, sound exactly alike. They all sound like a K sound. So for him, the words got and caught would sound exactly alike. They both come out like "Kot" So just imagine for me, if you would, all G's in the following sentence sounding like a K. And yes, we are VERY sick parents to have found this so funny.

Josh: "I got gum! I got gum!" "Why awe you yaffin? I yuv gum!"


Jake: I need a spoon.
Rick: Well go get yourself one. This isn't a restaurant!
Jake: (takes Rick's hand and drags him into the kitchen, and then points to the wall) "Look!"
Me: (laughing hysterically) OMG! He got you honey! Don't underestimate Jake.

Rick: Boy, that sign says Rest-Stop, not Restaurant! You better get your own stinkin' spoon!


After we saw this:

All the kids thought it was so cool. Then a classic Brooke moment

Brooke: But how did he get his hair to come out the top like that?

All the kids had to laugh, and then all of them tried to explain to her how it was a helmet. That it was made like that.

During a precious moment where Rick and I were alone in the car.
Me: Stop confusing me Bitch!
Rick: Will you stop calling my navigation system that? I LOVE her!
Me: Sorry honey, but what the hell is her name then? You are going to have to name her or I am going to keep calling her bitch.

And the best thing I have heard recently around this house is the word "Mom", spoken many times recently, by Andrew, describing me!!!

Preparing for the insanity

Well, I have some pictures, but not enough. Let me recap...

My BFF eloped. She ended up getting married on vacation with the man she had been dating for about 2 months. She then lost her mind decided to have a halloween ceremony. She wanted Wizard of Oz characters, with a Harley theme for the ceremony, followed by a costume party reception. When she hatched her scheme, I was shocked. Then, I tried my damndest to convince her to drop the Wizard of Oz portion and go Harley all the way. Why? Because I can rock a black leather miniskirt, that's why. I also thought it would be too busy to combine WOZ and Harley together, and that she should stick with one or the other. But, she was set on her scheme, and being my BFF for the last 17 years, I was happy to help out as much as I could.

I went to work on her yellow brick road, and then tackeled my costume. I needed to be this:



I started with this dress, in Ivory, that I purchased for $15 at the thrift store. I dyed it pink with this:




The dress didn't fit, so the back went from this:



To this:



And then I added lots o' tulle on the sleeves and a broach:



Since I am a realist, and not afraid of change, I also tried to dye my hair Glinda for the part. It really didn't come out orange, but it came out like this:



We put it off until the last minute, but really needed to find Rick a costume. He vetoed almost every idea I had, and then he came up with this

Rick's Hero (Not really, but whatever):



So the lighting sucks in this pic, but OMG, this was the funniest shit EVER!!!
Yes indeed that is a grill in his mouth!



Coming next, the Wizard of Oz wedding!!!

A New Baby!

Her name is Snow, and she knows her name, so I wouldn't want to change it. She is 7 yrs. old. She is gorgeous, sweet, and lovable. I love her.

Thank-you, Rick. I adore you. You are an amazing fiance and Dad, and constantly sacrifice to make us happy. We are so lucky to have you. I love you, and I can't wait for the honor of getting to call you my husband.

I am not Alone.

I've never touched on anything so personal here before. I just got back from reading Baggage's recent post and I cried. Hard. Because I was dealing with my past today, and I had a conversation with Rick about it, and then she wrote about it. And it's weird that she would write about it today. She is brave, and open, and I feel like I'm not alone, and that is a good feeling. So for that reason, I will share the conversation that I had with Rick today.


Me: What are you doing?

Rick: Just got done talking with a customer, what are you doing?

Me: On my way to the school. Are you alone?

Rick: Yes, I'm in the office, by myself. What's going on?

Me: I was thinking about what happened to me when I was 4. You know what I'm talking about?

Rick: Yeah, the abuse. Are you OK?

Me: I made a tape. I know because my Mom told me years ago. The dectectives interviewed me, and it's on tape. What do you think about me trying to locate the tape?

Rick: Oh. I don't know. I don't know if that would be such a good idea. Why would you want to do that?

Me: Because I don't know if my memories are real. My memory is foggy, and I can't recall everything.

Rick: That might be a good thing. It might bring up all sorts of issues if you heard it. That would be really hard.

Me: But I already have issues. I have relationship issues, and I have sexual issues, and there are parts of my body that you can't touch, and there are parts of your body that I don't want to touch, and I'm messed up. I just want to be normal. Maybe if I can hear it, and work it out in my head, I'll get better.

Rick: I don't think that is something that you can just work out in your head. I really think you might open up more than we can handle. I wouldn't want you going off the deep end or anything. Where would you get it? The police in VT?

Me: I guess. I don't think there is a time limit on that kind of crime. I guess they still have the tape. I don't know.

Rick: Why now? Why do you want to find the tape all of a sudden?

Me: I've been thinking about it for ten years.

Rick: Oh. Maybe you should try to find it then, if you've been thinking about listening to it for ten years.

Me: I'm at the school. I can't talk about this anymore, here comes Kyley.

And then tonight, when I read Baggage's emotional post, I cried, and I showed Rick, and he read it. And I am so lucky to have someone who will deal with this with me. And although he doesn't and can't understand, he listens. But Baggage understands. She's been there. And that felt good. So she gave me the courage to talk about this. Because I understand too, and I know that we are not alone. That the statistics say one in four women will be sexually abused.

This was not my fault. So why shouldn't I talk about it? I don't need to feel like there is something wrong with me anymore. I don't need to feel guilty, or bad, or less than. I didn't ask for this, so why do I need to carry around shame, and guilt, and secrecy?

Rick's best friend

Although Rick very strongly denies liking our cat Grier, the cat has no problems expressing his feelings for Rick.


This is Rick playing playstation football:



This is Rick's motorcycle. No, he didn't drive off sending the cat flying. Although he wanted to.

Paper

I went to get some more paper for my project, and the paper I am using is SO incredible. In the store, I caressed it, and then I hugged it, and then I licked it. Because I couldn't resist. Then Rick said I was crazy. Then he said that he was going to cover his body in that paper, and just for a minute, I entertained the thought and smiled. That is how much I love that paper.

New Mechanic

Dear New Mechanic,

I’m sorry that when you asked for a cash advance on your paycheck, that you didn’t realize it was actually a cash advance, meaning that you would have to pay us back, out of your paycheck. I realize that it was very interesting to you to learn how much a catalytic converter is worth. I understand that they use precious metals in making them, and that when Rick is going to junk a car, he sells the converters separately. Interestingly though, Rick ONLY sells the converters off of the cars that he is sending to the junkyard, because it is illegal to drive without one. Did you really think that it was a good idea to cut the converter off of your own car and sell it? I am so happy for you that you got a whole $250 for it, but now you need to spend $450 for a new one. We really have tried to help you out, but unfortunately we are not able to pay you in advance any more, as we have 7 kids, and cannot afford to keep you up for weeks at a time. We are more than willing to pay you for work that you actually do.

Sorry,

Heidi

Em Bare Assed

Conversation with the doctor today during Jake and Josh’s pre kindergarden check-up

Me: So you’re not going to report me to social services or anything?

Dr.: (laughing) nope.

Me: I just wasn’t home when they got up this morning.

Dr.: It’s typical boy behavior.

Me: The majority of the boys you see don’t like to wear underwear?




Conversation with the boys after the check-up

Me: Jake, you are SO tough! You only cried for about 5 seconds, and you got THREE shots!

Josh: Mommy, am I tough?

Me: Yeah, Josh! You are SO tough! You’re AWESOME!

Josh: Mommy, I wasn’t even cwyin.

Me: You weren’t?

Josh: No. I was pwetendin ta cwy.




Conversation with my mom and Rick after check-up

Mom: Well, that’s better than I thought you were going to say.

Me: Are you kidding? Most people put clean underwear on their kids before they take them to the doctor.

Rick: Well, better no underwear than dirty underwear.

Mom: Well, did that permanent marker ever come off where they drew circles around their nipples?

Talented Mechanic

Written 4/16/08

Well people, Kyley and Andrew are gone on their Outerbanks field-trip. Rick and I were up until 2:00 am last night, and finished everything this morning to get them ready for a four-day-trip. Why were we up until 2:00am and still didn’t finish? Because we have only known about this trip for EIGHT MONTHS. That’s why.

Rick wanted me to report on his job. As you may know, he owns a used car-lot. Because Rick has a full-time mechanic at the shop, when he sells the car, he explains to the customer that if the car breaks-down, he will fix it for a much lower rate than a garage. This keeps the customer happy, which in turn, brings him more customers through word of mouth advertising. Happy customers = More customers. So now for the story:

He had a customer coming in every-other week to make her payment. Every time she came, she was in the passenger seat of someone else’s car. He assumed that her son was using the car that she bought from Rick. After approximately 3 months of this, when she came in to make her payment, she said that the car had been broken-down for a few months, and she thought that she had saved enough money to get it fixed. Rick was shocked, and explained that he wished she would have told him, as he could have fixed her car and worked out a financial arrangement with her. He towed her car back to the shop that same day to fix it. She was quite surprised when he called her within 15 min. to tell her that her car was fixed, and it wasn’t going to cost her anything but the tow bill.
“Well, how did you fix it?” she asked.
“I put gas in it”

I would love to say that this is the only time this has happened. It’s not. Three times now this has occurred.

The lesson of this story? I’m not the only one who has to call Rick when I drive the car completely out of gas.

Y'all jiss don know haow t tawlk

Written 3/25/08

There is a day after Easter story that I can’t delve to deep into, because kids surf the internet. Anyway, I’ll just say that it involves Rainia finding stuff in our room, and my mother explaining to her that the Easter Bunny always leaves supplies for anyone who works in a school system to make baskets for other children just in case the Easter Bunny forgot to visit their house. Rainia, at 9 years old, had one of the saddest moments of her life. She barely spoke to anyone for the rest of the day.

On the flip side, I felt better today. But first I felt worse. I had to go back to work today, so I checked my school e-mail which I never do on my days off. I should make a point of checking it once in a while, because this was 9:30 am. Of course there was an e-mail from my supervisor saying that there was a mandatory staff meeting at 10:00 am. And do not be late. I have never washed myself so quickly in my entire life. I’m sure I missed some spots, but I put on a little extra perfume to make up for it. I wrapped my hair so tightly that when I took it down this evening it was still wet. I hopped out the door on one foot so that I could save zero seconds by putting my other shoe on in the car. I called Rick on the way to tell him my bum luck, and by the way, I may just run out of gas because the car is below empty. By the grace of God I didn’t run out of gas, and I was only 6 minutes late to the meeting.

This is how the whole day went. I got home at about 7:45 since it was a field-trip night. I honestly did not have time to feel depressed all day, and by the time I got home, the kids had already eaten Rick’s specialty. Rick’s specialty is Sloppy Joes. That’s what we called them up north. Around here, they are called Manwiches. I guess Rick thinks that it is ok to cook them, because they have the word “Man” in them. Because of that, I don’t argue the word. I like to argue the difference between Northern and Southern words, weiner instead of hotdog, y’all instead of you guys, and the one that really gets under my skin, toboggan. Where I come from, a toboggan is a kind of sled. Around here a toboggan is a hat. Since it only snows here once a year, and the snow is gone within hours, I believe that I have the authority over the difference between a sled and a hat. You cannot put a sled on your head! But I let Rick have Manwich, because that and soup are the only things he cooks. And the soup is questionable because last week when I was sick, I had some condensed soup WITH NO WATER ADDED. Lord was I glad to see those manwiches tonight though.

Rick says that it was a good thing that I had that meeting this morning, and had to work all day. He made the point that he would be depressed too if he had to spend the whole day in the house. Maybe he’s right. All I know is that I have a doctor’s appointment soon to talk about medication, and I am counting down the days.

Jacob and Joshua were play fighting today, which sometimes gets out of hand, but I was busy eating the best manwich in the world, so I didn’t stop them. Rick and I were sitting at the table when we heard Jake say to his twin, who is ½ in. shorter, but 5lbs. heavier, “You dont know kawate wittle kid.” We couldn’t help but to laugh.

Sick in Bed

Written 3/20/08

Sorry about the late post, but in the last few days, I have had to endure emotional issues so vile and repulsive that the very thought of them makes me want to vomit on this computer. Thus endagering mine, my fiance's, and a certain 5-year-old who is addicted to nickjr.com's, life-line to the outside world.

Anybody who sent a lovely e-mail about our safety, thank-you. We figured out the reasoning behind my near electrocution and house-fire. The "new" dryer had wires crossed, in that the red was connected to the white and the white was connected to the red. We re-wired them. Now we can sleep safely at night while also drying 1/200th of the laundry that needs to be done.

We fixed the water leak that saved our house, and we re-fitted the robot-arm to safely dispose of any lethal lint. By "we" in any of the above mentioned chores, I mean Rick. "We" also moved a large storage building from a house in the next town over to our current home, so that 9 people's off-season and waiting to fit into the next child-in-line's clothes will have a nice, dry, home. "We" also patched the roof, because a terrible storm blew off pieces of lovely to hear the rain while in bed on a stormy night tin roof all over our yard.

Andrew had a vision exam scheduled at Duke, and while on route, Rick and Andrew broke down in the car recently fixed by the new mechanic. The new mechanic had to drive the 1.5 hours to get them, because Heidi was dealing with vile emotional issues, while also dealing with a terrible cold or the flu or please put me out of my misery virus.

Rainia has hearing loss in both ears, more so in the right, in the lower tones. She has been put on steroids, nose spray, and daily sudafed to try to prevent tubes being put in to drain the fluid causing the hearing loss.

More later, I need to go cry hysterically, or throw-up, or shake violently while covered with three blankets while trying to sip tea with honey.

Sparky

Written 3/15/08

I had a near death experience plus God saved all of our stuff.

Sounds interesting right? This is what happened. In getting Rick's belongings out of his other house and storage building, we found a dryer. Since our dryer takes 2 full 70 minute cycles to dry a load of clothes, we figured we would try the one we found and see if it worked before starting to replace heating elements and such in the one we have. So the dryer has been in the middle of the kitchen since our moving furniture marathon. I decided that I would tackle this task while Rick was at work today.

I moved all of the dirty clothes out of the laundry room. (9 people remember, there is never a time that I can recall that the laundry has been all finished.) I slid the old dryer out of its place, and pushed the new dryer into position. When I plugged the dryer up, it was already on, so I quickly turned it off. I slid on the dryer lint hose thing onto the back of the dryer. (I don't know the name of this hose thing, but it is made out of tin-foil type material, and looks like a robot arm. It runs from the dryer into a hole in the floor, under the floor, and comes out of the side of the house.) So when I let go of the dryer-lint robot arm hose, it touched the outlet plug, and sparks started shooting everywhere. They probably shot 4 feet into the air, and continued sparkling like a fire-cracker while I grabbed the dryer and pulled it out from the wall until the robot-arm-hose fell and the sparks stopped. I took a deep breath and decided that I would wait until later to finish this particular chore. Quite a bit of smoke was coming from the laundry room, so I opened all of the windows and sent the kids outside. I was very impressed with the amount of smoke that electrical sparks cause, and shortly decided to leave the house myself. I went over to my mother's house and called Rick at work to tell him about my near death experience.

I let him know that if I had been touching the robot arm or had been in a different position, I would have been fried. After a long conversation of making sure that he was grateful that I was alive, I decided to take a nap. What else do you do when you narrowly escape death by electrocution? Plus, I wasn't feeling very well today. When Rick got home a couple of hours later, I woke up and we went into the laundry room so that I could reenact the whole thing. While in there, he noticed a loud water sound, and went into the kids bathroom on the other side of the wall, but they didn't have any water on. So, outside and under the house he went to investigate. He came back in to tell me to come outside.

Our house had been on fire! Apparently the robot-arm-hose was full of lint, and the sparks had started it on fire. it completely burnt up, catching the surrounding wood, sheetrock, and insulation, all the way out to the dryer-exhaust hole in the siding of the house. There is melted siding and burn marks all around the exhaust hole. The way that God put out the fire, is that the fire burned into the water pipes that supply the washing machine, and they were spraying like crazy, putting out the fire.

I had never even thought to check if the electrical sparks had started a fire, and although I was amazed at the amount of smoke, I thought that it had come from the sparks. The smoke was actually coming from our house burning up while I walked around and opened windows. I have no idea how long our house burned before God put out the fire, but I am grateful.

So this was very exciting, and amazing, but Rick is now disgusted. He started to pull out the burnt-up insulation and sheetrock from under the house to get to the melted pipes to fix the water leak, but it got dark and he worked all day, so we have our main water line cut off, and tomorrow it looks like he has his work cut out for him. So that is how I nearly got electrocuted and we nearly lost our house. And praise God that he put out the fire.

Blessings

Written 2/11/2008

More of the same good news today. We had a IEP meeting today at the school which included the doctor. I guess he is the Gaston County School Dr. because he has been at our IEP meetings before. when we updated him on Andrew's case, and explained that the cyst growing on his tumor had collapsed by it self and drained itself, he was very impressed. He stated that he had never in his career heard or read of that happening. Just more confirmation of how much of a miracle this was. We have an amazing God who has blessed our boy with a second chance. We know that if we had not cancelled the surgery, Andrew as we know him wouldn't be here. It is amazing the difference in Andrew's actions and personality since he got that cyst off of his brain stem. He is active again, like when he first came home from rehab. Like before radiation. The teachers mentioned, and we know it all to well at home, that it is so awesome to see him like this that we all don't even want to correct his behavior. Of course, we don't want to create a monster, but we find that it may just take a couple of seconds before we tell him to stop running through the house, or flipping onto the couch. It is just so good to see him doing these normal, everyday activities that we haven't seen out of him in a year and a half. Thank-you Lord.

In other news, Rick and Kyley are sick with a bad cold.

Jacob and Joshua cannot wait for t-ball to start.



Brooke has a pinata project at school, and I knew before hand that the boys (J&J) would be bothering her the whole time, so I said that they could make one, and the next thing I knew, we have six kids currently making pinatas. They have to dry between each layer, so I am making two large batches of paper mache every night. There are so many ripped up newspapers (25 - I got them from the school I work at) in the kitchen that it looks like a giant mouse house. We had pizza last night and McD's tonight because I can't get to the oven.

Got to go- company. More Later

Cast of Characters

Who We Are:

I am Heidi, aka Doodlebelle. I am trying to figure out how to be a parent. I am also trying to figure out how to survive/defeat my past. I have full-custody of four great kids. I enjoy reading, dancing, singing loudly in the car, laziness, losing my shit, and pms-ing.


This is Rick aka Big Mac, aka The King. Every Queen needs a good King. He is trying to figure out how to be a parent. He has full-custody of three great kids. He enjoys playstation, sports, procrastination, freaking out, and talking before he thinks.


This is Brittney, aka Shyness. She is 13 yrs old, and is the twin of Brooke, and the daughter of Rick. She enjoys dancing when no one is looking, competitive cheerleading, blaming her sister, and completely ignoring her parents when they ask her a question.


This is Brooke, aka The Fearless Leader, aka Trouble. She is outgoing, funny and popular. She is 13 yrs old. She is the twin of Brittney, and the daughter of Rick. She enjoys shopping, her friends, 4-wheeling, sports, competitive cheerleading, getting in trouble at school, dating people her parents disapprove of, and arguing with her siblings.


This is Kyley, aka Berd, aka The Genius. She is Smart, funny, and extremely weird. She is 11 yrs old. She is the daughter of Heidi. She enjoys reading, horses, watching TV, and sighing heavily when asked to do anything.


This is Andrew, aka The Amazing Recovery Boy. He is 11 yrs old, and lives with brain cancer. He is the son of Rick. He is funny and amazingly resilient. He enjoys playstation, computer games, drawing, talking back, and trying to get out of chores and school-work.


This is Rainia, aka Sassy. She is the daughter of Heidi, and is 9 years old. She is bubbly, fun and affectionate. She enjoys playing school, being a princess, eating, competitive cheerleading, telling everyone else what to do, and bossing around whoever she can.


This is Jacob, aka Jake, aka Rotten. He is 5 yrs old, is the son of Heidi, and the twin of Joshua. He is funny, sarcastic, and entertaining. He enjoys action figures, bugs, dancing, being the center of attention, trying to annoy people, getting in trouble at daycare, and ruling this family.


This is Joshua, aka Josh, aka Prince Charming. He is 5 yrs old, is the son of Heidi, and the twin of Jacob. He is loving, sweet, and affectionate. He enjoys Computer games, Playstation, sports, singing, and mimicking other people to try to get a laugh.


To contact me: iamdoodlebelle@gmail.com

About Us

Contact: iamdoodlebelle@gmail.com

We are a blended family with 7 children, one of whom has a brain tumor. The DoodleBelle's are: Heidi, Kyley 11, Rainia 9, Jacob 5, and Joshua 5.



The Big Mac's are: Rick, Brittney 13, Brooke 13, and Andrew 10.







We are so glad that we have eachother, and God, love, joy, humor, and fun are what get us through this crazy life of hospitals and treatments, step-family issues, financial hardship, and parenting such a large family.

I, (Heidi, a single mom) and Rick (a single dad) met when I bought a car from him in April 2003. We dated for some time, and decided to introduce our children. The kids hit it off immediately, enjoying eachother's company and loving doing things together. Throughout this time, Andrew was sick, getting severe headaches, and losing weight. Rick took him to many doctors and hospitals, who kept saying that Andrew was upset over his mother, who struggles with mental illness. Andrew got progressively worse, having vision problems, refusing to eat and vomiting after every meal. Finally Rick got a doctor to refer him for a CT scan. This was August 8th, 2006. The next day, Andrew was in emergency surgery to remove the huge (baseball size) tumor that was growing on his brainstem.

When Andrew awoke, he was paralized on his right side. He had a trachiostomy, and a feeding tube. He had a permanent shunt put in to drain excess fluid on the brain. Andrew struggled in the PICU for three weeks. When finally able, he was transfered to the hospital's rehab center, where he finally after two months, through shock treatments, gained back the use of his gag reflex, allowing him to swallow food.
Throughout this time, Rick never left Andrew's side. Brooke and Brittney, Rick's daughters, moved in with me and my four children. Still unable to walk, without the use of his right arm or left eye, Andrew was released on Oct. 17th, 2006. Because he needed homebound school services and intense rehab three times per week, I quit my job at Rick's car-lot where I was working, so that I could take care of him, and Rick could return to work. Rick and Andrew moved in with what had become the seven of us, making nine.

Andrew rapidly learned to walk, and returned to school in Jan. 2006. He continued to have PT and OT, through the school, and through private practice. How wonderful he did, until the tumor started to grow again. Andrew had 28 rounds of radiation-treatments in March and April of 2007. Unfortunately, around this time a cyst began to form on his tumor, creating more and more pressure on his brain, bringing us to the first update entry.

Oh-Yeah, plus we are engaged as of Christmas Eve, 2007.